Post a Haiku on Twitter; win Xbox 360, home theatre system

Microsoft has kicked off a haiku-writing contest to promote Windows Server …

On Monday, Microsoft will officially announce the launch a contest on Twitter that asks users to write a haiku (traditional five-seven-five syllable haiku format is encouraged, but not required) that does not exceed 140 characters, captures the benefits of Windows Server 2008 R2, and will award the best writer an Xbox 360 Elite and a home theatre system. The contest is limited to 18+ year-old residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. The only other limitation is that you are not a Microsoft employee, the immediate family of a Microsoft employee, or are not organizing the contest.

If you pass those limitations, you can enter the contest either over at twitter.com or r2haiku.com (Windows Live ID required). You must be signed into Twitter, follow R2haiku or provide a valid e-mail address so Microsoft can contact you with updates or if you are the winner, and tweet your haiku with the #R2haiku hash tag. You can submit a new substantially unique entry every day all the way until 11:59pm PST on January 15, 2010.

On or around that date, a panel of judges will review all eligible entries received and select nine semi-finalists based on the following criteria: accurately capturing the benefits of Windows Server 2008 R2 (50 percent), originality (25 percent), community feedback on haikus (15 percent), and strict five-seven-five syllable haiku format (10 percent). Once the semi-finalists have been determined, the remaining entries will be posted to r2haiku.com and visitors to the site will have a chance to review all the entries and select the one they like the best. The finalist with the most votes before the deadline will win the following:

One Sony Bravia XBR 52" LCD HDTV. ($1999.99)

One Sony Bravia 1000W 5.1 Home Theater system with Blu-ray disc player BDV-300 ($599.99)

Microsoft has been massively ramping up its marketing and general activity on Twitter ever since July 2009, when the official @Microsoft account finally became active (hundreds of various Microsoft Twitter accounts have been tweeting for much longer). As with all Twitter-related posts on this blog, we'd like to shamelessly note that you can follow us via the @OneMicrosoftWay account.